For example, a highly conscientiousness person spent £124 more annually on health and fitness than a person low in conscientiousness and a highly extroverted person spent approximately £52 more each year on pub nights than an introverted person.

The researchers also backed up the findings by giving people a voucher to spend either in a bookshop or at a bar. Extroverts who were forced to spend money at a bar were happier than the introverts who were forced to do the same thing, and the introverts made to drop money on a book were happier than their more outgoing counterparts who copied their spending habits.

Cambridge scientists pointed out that this follow-up experiment overcomes the limitations of the first study and helps conclude that money spent on things that match a person’s personality can cause an increase in happiness.

What’s going to make you happy?

Extroverted? Eat out and go to the pub

Agreeable? You should contribute to charity
Conscientious? Sort out your finances and keep fit

Sandra Matz, a PhD candidate who co-authored the study said: ‘Our study breaks new ground by mining actual bank transaction data and demonstrating that spending can increase our happiness when it is spent on goods and services that fit our personalities and so meet our psychological needs.’

Scientists said the findings could be used to help search-based recommendation engines to suggest products and services that will actually help our wellbeing.

And although this news is super interesting, it’s pretty bleak too. It was kind of easy to justify the fact that lots of us in the UK are being paid less than we need to survive when we believed that fulfillment came from other avenues (you know, being ‘creative’ or going travelling etc). But now we’re being told to forget that, and earn some mega bucks instead.